Connections |
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25 January 2026 - Adetswil
Connections bind us to this world. Through our parents and grandparents we are bound to the past. Through our friends and lovers we are bound to the present. And through our children we are bound to the future.
Brittan and Geege having a laugh in 2004
(yes, that is chocolate on their noses)
This week my children lost one of their 99 year old great grandmothers, Geege. When the kids were young we made sure to visit her every year, but I hadn't seen her since her granddaughter divorced me. Geege was always a kind and loving host, and kept me connected to my Maryland roots. Those roots were shallow though, and didn't really hold much of my family there. Unless we go back up the family tree more than three generations beyond me, and then I can only say that I don't know if all of the offspring of other branches left Maryland. I would imagine not though.
Also in that picture above from 2004 is Brittan, who I haven't seen or spoken to in four years. Not for lack of trying on my part. I heard she was in an accident, but her scientific publications haven't tapered off. Still, I don't think she's finished her PhD yet though. This week I've been sharing the James Bond movies with Iwona, who keeps me tied to our present. Growing up under the soviet occupation of Poland the first Sean Connery movie she ever saw was The Hunt for Red October. I grew up watching Bond movies on TBS with my dad. It was a cascade of emotions to see them again, and, watching Thunderball, I found those emotions cascading into the future as well. A portion of the film takes places on the Bahamas, an island chain that also provided the data for Brittan's Master's Thesis. It's a strange thing about modern life that people can block you on LinkedIn, Facebook, etc., but they can't block you from reading their scientific publications. Unless a government deems them top secret I suppose. References to my grandfather's research with the US Army Land Warfare Laboratory pop up in declassified reports and patent applications, and hilariously you can even buy his book on the 40MM Floating Flare on Amazon. But most of it was unavailable to the general public when it was written.
So I continue trying to hold onto these tenuous connections to the past and future while staying grounded in the present.
